Last movie seen — Page 297

DuracellEnergizer said:

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) -- F

The Breakfast Club (1985) -- A

Good, you pass the sanity test. 

Jaws

While the BD could be better (and it should being a 4K neg scan) it is nowhere near as bad as a Uni title usually is. The mono is intact with only a spot or two of distortion.

A great film that deserves more recognition of its technique and understanding of characters. This is why I frequently point to its heavy debt to both Duel and Sugarland Express; without these there would be no Jaws.

One of the great happy accidents that at least is polished up to a respectable BD but not truly what it could have been.

The 7.1 upmix is tamer than the atrocious 5.1 for DVD, but still totally out of place and ruins much of the ambiance in favor of a new soundfield experience. Completely unnecessary and prevents the mono from a having a restored 24 bit lossless presentation-AS IT SHOULD HAVE-as it really represents (along with SW) the pinnacle of mono mixing just before the jump to Dolby Stereo.

I still find it weird the for color they stayed very close to the old transfers. That shouldn't always be the case but I found this blurb from the SVP of technical operations which made me anxious:

Using colour as an example, we don’t just colour our films on the fly. We have everything that was previously done and because we’ve done this over and over again, from original theatrical release, when we did it for VHS, and when we did it for DVD, we have those tapes as our guide. That’s why it’s so simple: we match to the last look, which was already matched to the original look. There’s always a few tweaks that you want to do, but overall it matches what has come before.

*facepalm to infinity*

I always thought the older master (1995 signature LD, recycled for DVDs) was fairly accurate but you cannot go by this stuff alone for accuracy. Just popping in the '92 WS disc shows boosted contrast and color that is already different and obvious.

The few Spielberg tweaks are very minor and seem to have to do with brightening the darker scenes-i.e. the opening. This goes with the tweak to the Raiders opening and how HD video today works far differently to the pitch blacks from the film world then.  Personally I think you should never mess with this stuff as maintaining those blacks is the integrity of the original scene as shot and presented-but you risk losing people today on their HDTVs. So it's not bad necessarily...but it's still tweaked nonetheless.

captainsolo said:

While the BD could be better (and it should being a 4K neg scan)

Neg scans are teh worst. 

I got dragged to see that when it came out. Were there any prison movie cliches that they didn't use? ;)

And I don't buy that the animal rights crowd wouldn't find out about such a primate facility and burn a place like that to the ground. Nor that a pilot who has a severe hand injury is going to be allowed to fly a jumbo jet.

I grew up on the original POTA films, (it loomed large in my childhood before Star Wars) so I'm probably more than a little biased though.

TV's Frink said:

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

A very good but slightly disappointing movie.  Very good until the apes go ape-shit, at which point it becomes disappointing.  Disappointing because the CG apes are really bad CG during the action at the end.  One nitpick, how did the apes go from numbering just a few (maybe 30?) at the facility to hundreds (thousands?) once they break out?  Going to one zoo to free more apes didn't make me buy it.  Also, I don't buy that Ceasar could just roll some magic gas into the facility and make all the other apes super smart as well.

Persuaded to watch Kingsman.

Wished I had done anything else instead. Just plain dreadful. Completely flat, tone so poorly chosen that nothing worked, the main character felt like more of a subplot in an X-Men training scenario despite the main plot being given less screentime, hyperviolent for the sake of being violent, desensitizing in terms of this hyperviolence, and really painful for anyone like me who grew up with the great British spy medium.

Using the umbrella of course only made me think of Patrick Macnee's refusal to use firearms as Steed, and just how that particular moral qualm is nowhere to be found in this picture. Yes I know it's from a graphic novel which means "it must be over the top" but there is absolutely nothing to recommend here.

Painful, far too long, dull...and it even ends on a beyond crass sex gag that isn't even a gag. Fitting.

Zero anything.

captainsolo said:

Jaws

While the BD could be better (and it should being a 4K neg scan) it is nowhere near as bad as a Uni title usually is. The mono is intact with only a spot or two of distortion.

A great film that deserves more recognition of its technique and understanding of characters. This is why I frequently point to its heavy debt to both Duel and Sugarland Express; without these there would be no Jaws.

One of the great happy accidents that at least is polished up to a respectable BD but not truly what it could have been.

The 7.1 upmix is tamer than the atrocious 5.1 for DVD, but still totally out of place and ruins much of the ambiance in favor of a new soundfield experience. Completely unnecessary and prevents the mono from a having a restored 24 bit lossless presentation-AS IT SHOULD HAVE-as it really represents (along with SW) the pinnacle of mono mixing just before the jump to Dolby Stereo.

I still find it weird the for color they stayed very close to the old transfers. That shouldn't always be the case but I found this blurb from the SVP of technical operations which made me anxious:

Using colour as an example, we don’t just colour our films on the fly. We have everything that was previously done and because we’ve done this over and over again, from original theatrical release, when we did it for VHS, and when we did it for DVD, we have those tapes as our guide. That’s why it’s so simple: we match to the last look, which was already matched to the original look. There’s always a few tweaks that you want to do, but overall it matches what has come before.

*facepalm to infinity*

I always thought the older master (1995 signature LD, recycled for DVDs) was fairly accurate but you cannot go by this stuff alone for accuracy. Just popping in the '92 WS disc shows boosted contrast and color that is already different and obvious.

The few Spielberg tweaks are very minor and seem to have to do with brightening the darker scenes-i.e. the opening. This goes with the tweak to the Raiders opening and how HD video today works far differently to the pitch blacks from the film world then.  Personally I think you should never mess with this stuff as maintaining those blacks is the integrity of the original scene as shot and presented-but you risk losing people today on their HDTVs. So it's not bad necessarily...but it's still tweaked nonetheless.

*joins in facepalming* 

It's as if that lab technician has never heard of the kids' game "Telephone."

*sneaks back into thread*

Also, more on topic...

Blade Runner.

There, I said it. I confess: I hadn't ever seen this film until a couple of days ago.

(Where has it been all my life?!?)

4.8 out of 5 hockey masks, largely because it took 25 years to get a proper Director's Cut released.

*grumbles a bit about certain Hollywood executives' vanity and grudge-bearing*

Right.

I'll also say, I was quite amused when I read through the shooting script and found the establishing shot was described as "EXT: HADES - DUSK."

Haha, my good friend ATM I have still never watched Blade Runner...one of these days...

The most recent film I enjoyed was: Right Before Her Eyes.

Though some elements seemed a bit out of place the main was fantastically done. The acting was flawless.

One show I did not enjoy was: Spider.

This movie was so dreadfully paced that I actually viewed the entire video in 1.5 time. It did not even seem to impact the dialogue given the level to which it was drawn out. The sad thing about this film is that it had some real potential: all of the scenes relating to Spider's youth were well done and interesting, but in portraying his adult life and its schizophrenic tendencies the audience is forced to die a slow and painful death of a 1000 boredoms as he accomplishes nothing and mumbles and writes about nothing.

The really sad thing is that the cast, writer, and producer were apparently so enamored with the story that they decided to proceed with production even though they had not secured sufficient financing. As of the date of the DVD release none of them had yet been paid...? They termed it a labor of love...well in watching it one can certainly agree with the labor aspect...